ARE TASMANIAN CATHOLICS SATISFIED?

New Zealand Tablet, 22 May 1913, Page 34

ARE TASMANIAN CATHOLICS SATISFIED?

We direct the attention of our readers to the timely and valued communication from his Grace the Archbishop of Hobart which appears on page 22 of this issue. The action of Canon Garland which has occasioned his Grace’s letter is sufficiently well known, to our readers. Practically from the very inauguration of the present Bible-in-schools campaign, towards the close of last year, the Organising Secretary has been, and we believe still is, circulating the grossly false statement that ‘ the system existing in Tasmania is regarded by all denominations as a happy solution to the religious difficulty.’ The statement is being put forward by Canon Garland on the authority of * the Director of Education, Tasmania.’ Bishop Cleary has again and again brought under the notice of the League official evidence in complete refutation of the statement so far as Tasmanian Catholics are concerned; but the falsehood is still being industriously disseminated. His Grace’s letter gives, in succinct and interesting fashion, ,the history of this peculiar, and, as he truly calls it, ‘egregious’ pronouncement. His Grace’s letter -is conclusive on the following points: (1) That the Tasmanian official, a kindly and well-intentioned gentleman, who committed himself to the really ludicrous statement referred to, had no .special or intimate knowledge . of Catholic feeling on the subject; (2) that if Canon • Garland or the Tasmanian Secretary desired to know whether Tasmanian Catholics accepted the present Tas-

manian system as a satisfactory solution of the religious difficulty their obvious and only effective course was to apply direct to the Catholic authorities; and (3) that if they had so applied the answer' would have been an emphatic negative. We cordially thank Archbishop Delany for his communication, which supplies us with definite and authoritative evidence of which we can make ready and effective use in the present campaign. For the rest, we commend to the notice of the New Zealand public his Grace’s apt summary of the ‘ solution' of the education difficulty which is now being offered to us by the League: £ The secular system is a huge misfortune but this method of escape from it, is a huge injustice, unintelligible on any ground of statesmanship, considering that other countries have found practical and equitable alternatives.’